Curriculum

Gretton Primary School

Our Curriculum – A Guide for Parents and Carers

Our school curriculum is based on the subjects included in the National Curriculum 2014; English (Reading and Writing) Mathematics, Science, Art and Design, Computing, Design and Technology, Languages, Geography, History, Music and Physical Education. We also teach Personal, Social, Health, Citizenship Education (PSHCE) and our Religious Education lessons are based on the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus.

Whilst standards in the key skills of Reading, Writing and Maths are very important to us, we take great pride in the fact that we provide a genuinely broad and balanced curriculum for all year groups. In order to support this approach, when planning our school curriculum we use a thematic approach to link as many subjects together in a topic, as we believe it helps children to make connections within their learning, thus aiding curiosity and understanding. For example, when our Y3 and 4 children in Owls undertake their “Battle of Britain” topic they will learn about the historical and geographical aspects of the era, the popular music of the time and they will produce wonderful art work based on WWII posters, as well as writing diary entries and newspaper articles based on significant events of the time. They may even dress up in appropriate 1940s clothing and find out what it would have been like to have been an evacuee. Visits to museums and other venues, as well inviting visitors into school with specialist knowledge, also brings our curriculum to life and provides a range of highly memorable experiences.

Because we have two year groups in most classes, in order for all the children to cover all aspects of the National Curriculum our school curriculum is planned on a two year cycle. Our Key Stage One classes cover six topics per year but to allow our older children more time to explore their themes in more detail, they cover three different topics.

We place an emphasis on competitive sport and we have achieved some notable recent successes, often against much larger schools – such as winning the Tewkesbury Schools’ Athletics Championships and the area Cricket tournament, as well as reaching the National Finals of tag American Football. We offer a fantastic range of music lessons with expert peripatetic teachers and the standard of art work produced by our pupils, often created during our end of term “Friendship Fridays” is frequently stunning. We love the outdoors and all the children have the opportunity to participate in Forest School lessons, which they love! We offer a great range of extra-curricular clubs and many parents find our “Early Birds” before school club and “Night Owls” after school club very helpful in providing additional child care.

There really is something for everyone at Gretton but if you would like to find out more about our school curriculum then please contact our Headteacher, Mr Woolston.